Dry Chocolate Cakes - What Did I Do?

I just made my 1st 2 cakes from TCB. The Perfect All American Chocolate Cake and the Domingo Chocolate Cake. The texture and are amazing in both- light and airy. Yummy. However, they both taste dry as we chew, like you really want to get a drink to wash it down. It looks ok, used the baking strips,oven thermometer, ready at the beginning of the baking times, springing back easily, but the edges are a bit dark and crusty. Weighed all ingredients.

I have made a couple cakes from it, not those particular cakes though. I made - I think - the Downy Yellow Cake. I did notice that my cake was a little dry, but I used simple syrup on it, and it was actually super yummy a couple days later. I think I will experiment with reducing the flour by a a bit next time I make it. I liked the flavor OK, but doubled the vanilla.

I wish I could help with the particular recipes you are asking about, but I haven't made them yet. I thought referring to another cake from the same author/book might help.

The All-American chocolate cake...I've made it but I can't remember it being dry. I think taht if you bake it too long it will be dryer than it should be. Take it out of the over slightly before you think it's done, like if there are some crumbs on the tester but it's not battery go ahead and take it out. When you wait for the tester to be totally free of crumbs the cakes can be overbaked.